Suspect held over boy's unsolved murder

9 January 2007, AMSTERDAM — Police arrested on Tuesday a 36-year-old man on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of the 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen in 1998.

9 January 2007

AMSTERDAM — Police arrested on Tuesday a 36-year-old man on suspicion of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of the 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen in 1998.

The man is suspected to be the writer of several letters that have been found in recent years around the monument erected on the Brunssumerheide in memory of the murdered Heibloem boy.

Police and officers from the national forensics institute searched the suspect's home in Landgraaf on Tuesday morning. The public prosecution office believes it can prove the man was the writer of the letters.

The suspect's house is situated opposite a primary school and just several hundred metres from the Brunssumerheide.

The suspect lives alone and the latest letter allegedly indicates that the writer knows more about the circumstances of Nicky's death.

The prosecution is denying, however, that the arrest is a breakthrough in the case.

The prosecution suspects the man of murder or manslaughter and kidnapping. He does not have a criminal record and has no links to the summer camp where Nicky was last seen alive.

The suspect is not related to the victim.

The 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen disappeared early in the morning on 10 August 1998 from a tent at a youth holiday camp on the Brunssumerheide.

His was found dead the same night some 1,200m from the camp on the edge of a pine forest.

Nicky's killer has never been found, despite the fact police have identified five suspects in years past.